Detective Watts
by I-survived-life
Summary: Shelby Watts was obsessed with Sherlock Holmes. It's because of him that she wants to be a detective. And this year, she might actually get her chance at solving a mystery. Something strange is happening at Hogwarts and no one knows who's behind it. Armed with her brother and her friends, Shelby is determined to find out who is behind everything.


"Shelby, would you please hurry up!" my mum yelled from downstairs. I didn't even look up from my book, I couldn't. I'd read this novel about a thousand times before today, but every time that I opened it, I still got that excited feeling in my gut. I needed to find out what happened to Sherlock. I NEEDED TO KNOW.

"SHELBY WATTS, YOU GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT OR EVEN MERLIN WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SAVE YOU WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU!" Now that is how you get me moving off of my bed to get ready. My mum was one scary woman when she was angry.

"Coming mum!" I yelled out, as I dragged my trunk down the stairs. The thing was bloody heavy. I do not remember it being this heavy last year, what on earth did I pack in my trunk? It felt like I was lugging around a refrigerator or something.

"I'm here!" I exclaimed, leaning against the kitchen doorframe. My mum stood before me with her hands on her hips and a look that could kill even the bravest of men. I gave her a weak smile, but she simply rolled her eyes at me, grabbed my trunk herself and made to drag it out to the car.

"Shelby, what on earth have you packed in your trunk?" my mum asked, giving me the stink eye. I couldn't exactly blame her being annoyed with me, she had almost fallen to the ground.

"Oh, the usual, clothes, shoes, textbooks, my Sherlock Holmes novels," I added quietly, hoping that she wouldn't hear. It seemed that I needed to work on my muttering because, judging by the angry look on my mum's face, she'd heard me crystal clear.

And she was not happy. Damn.

You see, my grades hadn't exactly been the best last year. My mother had nearly set the house on fire when she saw the marks that I'd gotten, and needless to say, she was not happy. I mean, so I got a T in History of Magic, so what! Pretty much everyone in that class failed it because no one cared about it and no one had studied but it's not like she had to ground me and take away my novels over the summer as punishment.

Yeah, that's right. My entire summer was spent studying for all of the subjects that I had failed last year instead of having fun. The most active thing I did outdoors was have my brother quiz me while I skipped rope. I had not read one single novel over the summer; I hadn't read one single Sherlock Holmes book the entire summer. Needless to say, I was having serious mystery withdrawals.

My mum was busy blaming the fact that I'd failed History of Magic and Muggle Studies (yeah, I failed that as well) on the fact that I was reading too much. And she was very specific about what type of book was at fault for my failing as well. The one thing I was looking forward to today was complaining to Hugo about how unfair my life was.

"Shelby, what did I tell you about packing those damned books?" mum asked me.

"Not to pack them," I answered in a small voice.

"That's right, and what did you do?"

"I went ahead and packed them," I replied in the same small voice. I felt horrible for disobeying my mum but if she had asked me to leave behind any other novel, I would've done it in a heartbeat, but not my Sherlock Holmes books. Those books were worth facing my mum's wrath. Now I was scared that she would open my trunk right there in the middle of the sunny hallway, with its white walls and family photos, and take out the entire series.

"Shelby, I'll let you bring the books if you promise me that you will not fail any subjects this year," my mum said, sighing in defeat. I stared at her with wide eyes and a blank brain. Was she seriously saying what I think she was saying? Could I really have my books back?

"THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!" I yelled, as I threw my arms around my mum's neck and almost strangled her. She patted my back and waited for me to let go of her before rolling her eyes.

"Honestly, sometimes I think I ate mystery novels while I was pregnant with you or something," mum said, turning around and dragging my trunk to the car at the front of the house. We lived in a muggle neighborhood so we didn't get to do as much magic as we liked. "BARTHOLOMEW! WE'RE LEAVING! GET DOWN HERE!"

My brother made a disgusted face as he came down the stairs while fixing his belt. As you can see, my brother is usually with the program. He dragged his trunk and his stupid owl -that was thankfully asleep- with him as he came down the stairs.

My brother had the strangest name out of everyone at Hogwarts. He absolutely hated it and preferred that everyone call him Bart. I loved his name, I thought it was cool, and it was a lot of fun saying Bartholomew, but my brother disagreed with me on that. I know because every time I called out "BARTHOLOMEW, WHERE ARE YOU?!" he walked up behind me and smacked the back of my head.

Sometimes it was like I was the younger sibling instead of him.

"Have you both got everything that you need?" my mum asked us, looking around to make sure that we weren't missing anything important. "Alright, good, lets get going then; we don't want to be late."

While I opened the car, mum dragged my trunk to the hood with my brother following behind her. Once everything was shoved away, mum got into the driver's seat while my brother got into the back, with his cage and owl, after sticking his tongue out at me. It's not my fault he didn't call shotgun, you snooze you lose buddy!

"Alright, let's get going then, we don't want to be late," mum said glancing at the time on the radio and buckling herself up. I looked at the time and rolled my eyes. Every year since first year, mum had always gotten us to the platform practically an hour before it was even open. We'd always be stuck walking around, doing nothing until the barrier was opened.

I couldn't really blame her though, ever since we'd missed the train in first year -despite the fact that we'd been one of the earliest people there- I'd been pretty paranoid that something would go wrong on September 1st as well. Bart didn't really mind that much, we always went to the same cafe to get coffee and some pastries, and he got to flirt with the girl behind the counter. He thought that she had no idea he was flirting with her, but I'd talked to her when my brother had managed to drag himself away, and she was totally on to him.

She thought that he was cute but found it hilarious how he flirted with her and tried to be all charming. Of course, I couldn't tell my brother because apparently making everyone's lives easier was stupid.

At the rate we were going though, we'd never get to the cafe for coffee and pastries. You know those drivers on the road that are slower than everyone else and your granny, and take the absolute longest time to make turns and such? Yeah, my mum was that driver. She was so afraid of crashing the car that people just switched lanes, drove past us and then went back to where they were. She was holding the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were turning white, and she kept looking around to make sure that we were in no immediate danger.

I was tempted to tell mum that no matter how slow she drove, it wouldn't keep something bad from happening to us. Take that time she nearly drove us into the side of the truck while switching lanes. I don't think I've ever been more terrified in my life.

Bart absolutely hates mum's driving. Every time she has to drive us somewhere, he clutched his seatbelt so tightly he ends up leaving imprints in his hands. That and the look of absolute terror gives away the fact that he's scared.

My mum's stiff posture finally relaxed once she'd parked the car at King's Cross and turned it off. While mum went to get a trolley for us to put our stuff on, Bart and I got out of the car and made our way to the hood to lift out our trunks. Bart's trunk went flying through the air like it weighed nothing at all, when I knew for a fact that Bart packed more stuff than I did. It seemed my trunk was the heaviest though; Bart had a pained look on his face while lifting it.

I frowned, even with everything that I'd packed Bart's trunk still had to be heavier. He packed the most ridiculous things. One time, I found five different cases for taking care of his broomstick.

I lifted both of our trunks separately, just to see if my trunk was as heavy as it looked. His was definitely heavier than mine. I gave Bart a good kick to the shins while he laughed at me and dodged my foot.

"I see you two are getting along well then," mum said, while pushing two trolleys in front of her.

I immediately grabbed the closest one to me and heaved my trunk onto it. I sighed when I realised that I would be going to Hogwarts this year without a pet. Again. I kept telling myself that I needed to get one but somehow the reminder always slipped my mind and I only remembered on the day we had to be on the train.

"Mum, we need to get me a cat during Christmas break," I said, as the three of us took our stuff and walked the familiar way to the cafe that was next to King's Cross.

"You say that every year and every year we completely forget," mum replied, opening the door for Bart and I. We left our trunks outside of the shop like we usually did and waited in line behind everyone else for our turn to order coffee and, in my case, a strawberry danish.

The smell of coffee immediately hit us when we opened the door and stepped inside. Underneath the coffee aroma you could smell did pastries, cookies, cinnamon rolls and anything else you could name. The wall behind the counter of the shop was lined with every type of coffee machine that there was.

Employees moved back and forth, pulling levers, pressing buttons and carrying four cups all at once. There were little round tables around the shop where you could sit and enjoy your coffee or food. All of the tables were full, mum had managed to snatch the last one avaliable.

"So tell me Shelby, how has the mystery hunt been going for you? Found anything to solve yet?" my brother asked smirking at me. Every year since I was twelve he'd asked me the same thing, and every single year I would reply no and have to sit there and endure Bart's smug look.

"No, but just you wait, someday I will solve a mystery and when I do, I'll make sure to find you and say I told you so," I replied, glaring at him.

"Uh huh, right, you keep telling yourself that Shelly."

"At least I can actually _read_, unlike some people that I know. And don't call me Shelly, you know I hate that stupid nickname," I snapped at him. For some reason everyone insisted on calling me Shelly. They claimed that it was shorter than Shelby, which I thought was just plain stupid because both names had the same amount of letters in them, and took the same amount of time to say.

"Hey Melissa," I said with a sigh to the girl standing behind the counter. She watched the exchange between my brother and I with an amused look on her face. She always found our bickering hilarious.

"Hey Shelby," she said, putting more emphasis on my name. "Same thing as always?"

"You got it," I replied with a grin, and waited with my prat of a brother as she went and got our orders ready. My brother seemed to have lost the ability to speak at the moment, and had turned bright red. When Melissa returned with everything that we had ordered, it looked like she was trying to bite back a laugh. I couldn't really blame her; Bart looked like he was positively constipated. I'm pretty sure everyone nearby was trying not to laugh.

"Uh, Bart, why don't I take these with me, it looks like you're about to pass out," I commented, and took everything in my hands and made my way over to our mum. I went back to get some napkins and found Melissa and Bart talking to each other on the side while a different employee took everyone else's orders. Naturally, I went and hid behind a rubbish bin as fast as I could so that I wouldn't miss what they were saying.

A sister's gotta do what a sister's gotta do, after all.

"So, Bartholomew," Melissa said, leaning forward and batting her eyelashes at my brother. I could see him swallowing and stop breathing from where I was crouching. It was hilarious. "I was wondering if you wanted to go out some time?"

"Uh, call me Bart, I don't like Bartholomew," my brother choked out, before turning an even brighter red. If he kept this up, he'd be turning purple soon. By the looks of it, he'd probably die from lack of oxygen, which I sincerely hoped wasn't the case. I didn't really fancy having to drag my brother to St Mungo's on the first day of school.

On the other hand, I was enjoying watching my brother get all flustered around a girl.

"But I like calling you Bartholomew."

"You can call me Bartholomew then," Bart said, attempting to grin confidently but looking like a constipated goat instead. "And, uh, I'd love to go out with you sometime, the only thing is, I won't be back until next summer because of school and stuff."

"Will you be back for Christmas holidays?"

"Definitely," Bart said, and anyone who knew him knew that he would actually be showing up for Christmas. He'd do just about anything if it meant that he could go on a date with Melissa.

"Good, I've got to get back to work, but I'll see you," Melissa said, waving goodbye and walking away. I jumped out from behind the rubbish bin and jumped on my brother's back, cheering loudly as he staggered and almost fell over with me on him.

"Congratulations, Bart! You've finally got a date!" I yelled, attracting the attention of just about everyone in the cafe. My mum was sitting near the windows and pretending like she didn't know us.

"Shelby, get off of me," Bart said. I tightened my arms around his neck and locked my feet together around his waist. I was not getting off of his back. He'd have to force me off.

"Is this embarrassing you?" I asked him humming.

"Yes, very."

"Then no, I'm not getting off," Bart sighed, and went to work on forcing my hands to let go. I was one stubborn girl however and stronger than I looked, it would take a lot more than Bart to get me to let go. He finally gave up though and instead walked towards mum with me latched onto his back like a koala hugging a tree.

"I need new children," my mum muttered, sipping her coffee and looking out of the window. For the next fifteen minutes or so I was stuck to Bart's back and everyone who walked through the door of the cafe immediately looked over at my brother and I. Eventually though, I got tired of being stuck in that position so I clambered off in the most awkward way possible. It annoyed Bart to no end, which was kind of the point but amused me greatly.

I inhaled my strawberry danish and drank my hot chocolate. Yes, I know what you're wondering, hot chocolate in the morning. Isn't it just plain weird? It might've been for all I knew but who cares, hot chocolate is hot chocolate. It was acceptable to drink it at any time.

The train station was getting more crowded the later on it got, and the cafe was also a lot more crowded. People were getting jostled, feet were stepped on and it was impossible to move without brushing against someone.

Mum checked her watch and decided that it was about time to leave now and get on the platform. It was around ten thirty, but considering that there were people standing around the cafe and we were just loitering, we decided that it was better to get out.

As soon as the three of us got up, people practically dived for our table and started fighting over who got to sit in it. It took the crowd of people about five minutes to realise that a short girl with black hair had already taken the seat, along with her friend, and was having a conversation.

Once we collected our stuff, we pushed through the large crowd of people and made our way to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Honestly, it wasn't that difficult to go through the crowd of people, considering that they moved for us because Bart's damn owl kept screeching whenever someone got too close. He'd gotten the wretched thing around third year and had kept it ever since. I had no idea why of course, the thing made more noise than everyone in the house combined and it would start making 'who' sounds at night whenever we locked it up.

"Alright now, Bart, you go through the barrier first," my mum said, and moved aside to give my brother space. He always went through the barrier first, but I suspected mum did that because she hated his owl as much as I did. It was that annoying of a bird. At one point, there was even a plan to get rid of it. I would've gone through with it if mum hadn't found out and banned me from actually killing the bird.

It's not like I was going to do anything inhumane, I was only going to feed it poisonous pellets.

"Thank God I won't have to listen to that ruddy bird for ten months," I grumbled, as I ran towards the barrier and passed through it. It could annoy all of the other owls in the Owlery.

Bart was standing to the side, with his stupid owl, waiting for mum and me. I made my way towards him, getting out of mum's way so that she didn't run into me and knock us both over.

Said stupid owl started screeching like a banshee as I approached, the closer I got, the shriller the screeching got. I thought my ear drums were going to explode or something before it finally stopped. So help me God, if Bart doesn't learn how to make that screeching stop, I was going to take his owl and throw it on the tracks of an oncoming train one day.

"I didn't know that Satan took the form of a bird," I said, giving Daryl the owl the dirtiest look I could.

"I never thought that insanity would take the form of a female yet here we are," Bart snapped back . For some strange reason, the boy got extremely sensitive when it came to his pet. It was ridiculous, the way he acted when someone insulted it, you'd think they were talking rubbish about his family or something like that. In fact, I was pretty sure Bart would be more insulted if someone told him his owl was fat than if someone spit in his face.

"Everyone okay?" mum asked, straightening her clothes. I'd be better if Daryl shut up but we can't always get what we want.

"Mum, we only went through the barrier, it's not like we were trying to jump on the train while it was moving," I replied, rolling my eyes. Mum always asked us if we were okay every time we went through the barrier. Granted, in first year I skinned my knee because I fell over but it's not like that was going to happen all the time.

"Can't blame a mother for worrying, can you? We don't want a repeat of first year," she said, giving me a mischievous grim before walking along the platform looking for an empty compartment. I narrowed my eyes at her retreating figure and stuck my tongue out childishly. The woman was good.

Bart and I followed mum down the train until we found a compartment that was completely empty. We loaded our stuff onto the train, onto the overhead holders and went back on the platform to say goodbye to mum and see if we could find any of our friends. Our family wasn't one for teary goodbyes so as soon as we said bye to mum, she hugged both of us one last time before disapparating. That and she had to get to work.

"Excited for OWL year little brother of mine?" I asked, throwing my arm around Bart's shoulders and holding him to me. He may have been a year younger than me but he was already taller by almost five inches.

"Are you seriously asking me if I'm excited for the year that I have to take exams that will help determine what I will do for the rest of my life?" he deadpanned.

"That's the spirit!" I exclaimed, slapping his back. Any further conversation between us was interrupted by the sound of two loud voices arguing with each other. One male and one female and Bart and I only knew one male and female who always argued on the platform.

"Are you sure you've got enough quills, I can give you some more if you need them-"

"Bloody hell Rose, I'll be fine, if I run out of quills I'll just buy some more from Quill's Galore in Hogsmeade," Hugo Weasley snapped at his sister while glaring at her. He and Rose argued every year but Rose had graduated last year along with her cousin Albus so she didn't attend Hogwarts anymore.

"I'm just making sure that you're prepared is all," Rose replied defensively.

"I will be fine! Christ, you were unbearable when you were packing to go to Hogwarts, now you're even more unbearable just seeing me off," Hugo said, leaping away from her as Rose tried to fix his hair. Rose sighed but gave up on chasing her brother who was crouching behind me for safety.

"Do you have a problem with looking presentable?"

"No, but I have a problem with my older sister acting like my mum," Hugo retorted. "Speaking of which, where is mum?"

"She said something about her and dad getting coffee and meeting us here," Rose replied checking her nails. Hugo groaned loudly and began to slam his forehead down on my shoulder over and over and over and over again. Besides the fact that my shoulder was beginning to seriously hurt, Hugo kept rocking me from side to side. Every time his head hit my shoulder, I'd tilt towards him and then back straight when he lifted his head.

"Knowing them, they probably got sidetracked and started snogging each other's brains out," Hugo said.

"It was bad enough witnessing the live show of that in the kitchen two days ago, I don't really want to think about it," Rose replied her face twisting to form an expression of disgust. Actually Rose, I'm pretty sure that no one really wants to picture that in their heads.

"And switching topics from something that I really wish I hadn't pictured, Hugo, you can put your stuff in our compartment," Bart said, pointing towards the window where you could clearly see our things shoved into the holders overhead and hear Daryl screeching. Hugo grimaced when he caught sight of the owl but didn't say anything. He hopped onto the train and with the help of Rose, managed to get his trunk on board as well.

Hugo got his stuff sorted in our compartment and came back out massaging his ears. "Mate, I love you and all but you've got to figure out what to do about that screeching owl," Hugo said to my brother. Hugo was pretty much the only person that Bart didn't snap at whenever they said anything about his owl. I'm pretty sure that had to do with the fact that Bart idolised Hugo now that his cousins were gone.

"Hello all," came the voice of Hermione Weasley. We all turned to look at her and her husband Ron, making their way towards us. Her hair was indeed bushier than normal and Ron's hair was completely disheveled, as opposed to his usual straight style. Everyone that wasn't them groaned in unison.

"Would you all relax, it's not like we shagged in the bloody loo before we came here," Ron Weasley said, blunt as always. He was never one to beat around the bush.

"When you have a girl over to our place I can guarantee you that at some point in your relationship I will walk in on you two snogging in my kitchen, so don't act like you're innocent with me," Hermione said, pointing at her son.

"I've already walked in on him doing that," Ron added, smirking at his son who had turned a faint pink. I snorted into my hand to try and hide my laughter, which was pretty useless because I'd only achieved in attracting everyone's attention to me. As you can see, there is absolutely no privacy in our relationships.

"Hello everyone," Lily said walking up to our group with her family trailing behind her. "Uncle Ron, Aunt Hermione, I see you two were snogging again."

"Lily my love!" I cried, throwing my arms around her and holding her tightly. She patted me on the back awkwardly before shoving me off of her.

"I've been assaulted with love all morning, save yours for another week." Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Lily Potter! She hates people touching her so much you'd think she was a germaphobe by the pained expression on her face whenever someone hugged her. I pointed behind me to the compartment that the four of us were sharing without a word and Lily got on the train while everyone else said hello to each other.

"Shelby!" Mr Potter exclaimed, giving me a bear hug. "We haven't seen you all summer!"

"She was grounded for failing History of Magic and Muggle Studies," my brother added in helpfully while sniggering. It looks like he's been waiting all summer to tell everyone that. What was family for! Certainly not for keeping your secrets that's for sure.

The platform was bursting with people now and everyone was shoving everyone to get to wherever they needed to go. People were hugging each other excitedly, while others were running to get on the train and find a compartment for themselves. There was an excessive amount of animal noises ranging from frogs to cats to mice to owls, which was great because it's not like I had an entire train ride to spend with a deranged owl.

The air was filled with smoke that was coming from the Hogwarts Express which was getting ready to leave pretty soon. I hadn't even noticed the time passing by.

You lot better get on the train," Ginny said, looking down at the gold watch on her wrist. Immediately everyone that was actually leaving for Hogwarts dived for the door, trying to get on the train first. It's amazing we manage to get through Hogwarts at all considering no one besides Hermione was very organised.

"ONE AT A TIME!" Hermione yelled over all of the noise that we were making. We immediately stopped our fighting and got into one straight line. When Hermione Weasley told you to do something, you had better do it. Just as we'd all gotten to the window to say goodbye to the adults one last time, the train whistle blew and there was a mad scramble from everyone still on the platform to get onto the train.

"BEHAVE YOURSELVES AT HOGWARTS AND MAKE SURE THAT YOU STUDY!" Hermione yelled after us, as the train slowly started to move.

"DON'T WORRY, WE WILL!" we all yelled at the same time, while waving as the adults got smaller and smaller and the train station got farther and farther away until it all disappeared. We all ducked back inside the compartment, shut the door and relaxed in various positions on the seat.

I planted my feet in Hugo's lap and sighed happily as I accidentally slapped my brother in the face. "Is it just me or does it feel like everything is going to be different this year? Doesn't it feel like something exciting is going to happen?"

"No, it's just you Shell," Lily said flipping through Quidditch Monthly. I ignored Lily and stared out of the window. It didn't matter if they agreed with me or not, something just felt different this time around. It felt like things were going to be different, something would change. Something was bound to happen this year, I could just feel it.

Maybe I'd finally get to solve a mystery.

* * *

**A/N: **I've been watching too much Sherlock, that is the only explanation that I can give for starting a story like this. I've never written mystery before so this is my first time trying it and I'll do my very best. If you decide to stick around after this first chapter, thank you! Reviews are always welcome and so is feedback! beautiful cover made by cynical tda!


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